Remote Work and the Employee's Binding Request to the Employer

https://doi.org/10.31971/2299-2332.2024.19.5

Abstract

This article concerns remote work implemented under Article 6719 of the Labor Code, which was enacted and introduced into the Polish legal system along with amendments to the Labor Code introducing Chapter IIc regarding remote work (provisions came into force on April 7, 2023). Legislative changes in this area will have a significant impact on the labor market, including the foreign workers' labor market and their employment methods in Poland. The Covid-19 pandemic of 2020 and its consequences in the form of introducing an epidemiological emergency state in the country and the resulting necessity for isolation led to sudden and previously unforeseen temporary changes in work performance methods. Almost all representatives of professions where it was possible to work from home (or another place of isolation) and communicate with the employer through remote communication means were directed to work remotely. National legislation was not prepared for such a change. During that period, telework regulations were used, although they were sparse, inflexible, and imperfect. As a result of the pandemic, urgent work was undertaken to introduce amendments to the Labor Code that would more broadly regulate issues of performing professional tasks remotely. The article contains an analysis of one form of remote work implemented under Article 6719 in connection with Article 1421 and the rights and obligations of both parties to the employment relationship in the context of remote work implementation in the aforementioned mode (which concerns privileged persons, including those caring for persons with disabilities) both on the employee's and employer's side.